Dead Girl Walking

Abandon all hope.
Hope is for the children,
who know not yet what they do.
Make no promises,
especially not to the dying.
You can’t apologise later
for failing to save.
Ignore the mocking birds,
and the yellow eyed ravens that
hover, in waiting.
They are just passing time.
Drink the filter coffee
in the waiting rooms,
and remember to smile and make
no mention of the blackening
veins that harden minute by minute
in your arms and legs.
Make light of the wrenching pain in your gut,
and pretend that your clammy brow
is simply because
it’s a very hot day.
Hang a rosary around your neck,
like Mardi Gras beads. A proclamation
that you will live every day like
a girl holding on for dear life
cowboy hat and all,
on a bucking mechanical machine,
while tearing your lungs with screams of
pure joy.